|
Logan County Board
March Special Regular Meeting
[March 06, 2026]
On Thursday, March 5th, the
Logan County Board held a Special Regular meeting. This meeting was
set to be held in the second-floor courtroom of the Logan County
Courthouse, but that was changed earlier in the day to the
third-floor courtroom. This change was likely made due to the need
for more space for members of the public to attend the meeting.
Eleven of the twelve members were present: Chairman JR Glenn, Vice
Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan, Michael DeRoss, Hannah
Fitzpatrick, Gil Turner, Bob Sanders, Kevin Knauer, Keenan Leesman,
Jim Wessbecher, and Joseph Kuhlman. The only member absent was Kathy
Schmidt.
The meeting was called to order at 6:10 p.m., and Glenn invited
Turner to give an invocation. After a brief prayer, the Pledge of
Allegiance was performed and then several guests were introduced.
Glenn moved the board on to action
items, starting with the Logan County Tourism Bureau (LCTB). LCTB
Board President Molly Pickering was present to provide an update.
She stated that they had hired Wanda Lee Rohlfs as the new LCTB
executive director. Pickering continued that the hiring of Rohlfs
allowed the LCTB to retain their certified bureau status, allowing
them to apply for grants.
Pickering shared that they had acquired one in the amount of $32,923
from the state allowing them to hire a company to conduct a social
media marketing campaign for the county. She also stated that the
LCTB acquired an additional grant of $465,695 for several projects
in Lincoln and around the county.
The larger grant was going to be used for projects including a
roadside sign for Elkhart, a complete restoration of The Mill, and
several larger projects in Lincoln which includes the construction
of a large penny, new Route 66 wayfinding signs, two new murals, and
a Route 66 museum.
Pickering stated that they expected
Route 66 and certified bureau grants to continue and hoped to be
able to secure more money for projects around the county moving
forward. She thanked the members of the LCTB board.
The next item on the agenda was a discussion and vote on hiring the
company Revize to redesign the county website. Conahan shared that
he and others had previously met with the company. He mentioned that
Mr. Adams, the man currently running their website, is looking to
retire.
DeRoss asked about having to follow ADA (Americans with Disabilities
Act) guidelines for the website, something he remembered being
brought up in an earlier meeting. He clarified that, after looking
at the law, it appeared that counties were exempt from this. Conahan
stated that a representative from Revize stated the law was going to
change in April.
Glenn also wanted to know whether Conahan had put out an RFP
(request for proposal) to have other companies put in bids. Conahan
stated that he had not, as he ran into Revize on several other
county websites they had redone. Conahan made a motion to hire
Revize, and it was seconded. Glenn further voiced his concern about
the lack of an RFP. Regardless of the concern, the motion was passed
unanimously.
Next was a presentation from Mike Engelhardt and Sarah Gerhardt from
Alera Group, who the County Board recently brought on as their new
insurance broker. Engelhardt started by sharing that when they
talked to Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) initially, they were at an
11.15 percent increase to renew the county’s health insurance plan
for its employees. After some negotiation they lowered that
percentage to 6.87.
Engelhardt stated that BCBS was cancelling the plan the county was
on in favor of a new, very similar plan. He went over some of the
plans, as well as the amounts for deductibles, out of pocket
maximums, family plans, etc.
Engelhardt then provided the county with a second option proposed by
BCBS involving doctors in one of two tiers. In short, doctors who
had “better outcomes,” according to BCBS, would be put into tier 1
with all other doctors being in tier 2. Doctors in the first tier
would have more of their costs covered, with things like co-pays
being lower for individuals seeing them.
It was asked if there was a list of these doctors and facilities in
these two tiers. Engelhardt stated he could get a PDF made up and
sent out the day after the meeting. He stated this plan would lead
to a 7.8 percent decrease in yearly cost to the county.
Engelhardt additionally had a few more plans from companies like
Aetna and United Healthcare. Aetna would be a little more expensive
than BCBS, while United Healthcare would be more expensive. He
stated that, for dental and vision, the county could retain mostly
the same benefits while decreasing their yearly cost.
Ways in which the information
presented could be distributed to county employees were then
discussed. It was agreed that the department heads would have an
email chain with Engelhardt and Gerhardt to get employee questions
answered. Nothing was voted on so that employees could have time to
process the information and the board could get an understanding of
how the employees felt at a later date.
The fourth item on the agenda was over hiring Mark Pruitt to conduct
studies on the impact of the proposed Hut 8 data center. DeRoss
shared he reached out to the United Counties Council of Illinois and
Greater Peoria Economic Development Council and both recommended
Pruitt. DeRoss shared that Pruitt had already done a similar study
in Sangamon County with another proposed data center.
DeRoss explained after speaking to Pruitt, the scope of work would
include things like talking to all interested parties, speaking to
the developer, conducting energy-related impacts and presenting his
findings to the board. Pruitt would charge $250 an hour and would
not exceed $10,000 for his full services. DeRoss shared that they
could have him present his findings in a different format, as well
as add things to his scope of work.
[to top of second column] |
Knauer immediately wanted a
study on the impact of the local water added. DeRoss encouraged
him to propose an amendment once the item came to a motion at a
later date. Leesman wanted to know if adding more to Pruitt’s
scope of work would increase the total amount he would not
exceed. DeRoss explained this would need to be negotiated.
Leesman also wanted to know if studying water and environmental
impacts was in Pruitt’s “wheelhouse” and if he had expertise on
battery storage facilities, to which DeRoss could not answer
with certainty.
DeRoss stated that he wanted to
take this item back to get some more answers from Pruitt, but Glenn
was concerned that there would not be enough time to do that, get
the motion made and passed, and for Pruitt to do his study before
the 60-day moratorium expired. DeRoss assured Glenn that he would be
asking Pruitt about that first and then requesting special meetings
if they needed to get the vote moving faster than their regular
scheduled meetings would allow.
Next was an update from DeRoss on a video call including himself,
several board members and Ameren. In this meeting, they discussed
the proposed Hut 8 data center, not learning much more than they
already knew. Ameren confirmed that the cost of any infrastructure
upgrades would be paid for by Hut 8, and those costs would not be
passed on to the people of the county.
Additionally, DeRoss confirmed that they would be drawing their
power from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).
Nelson, who works in the power generation industry, stated that even
if Hut 8 were not to build in Logan County, their impact would still
be felt by all the states that MISO serves, should they build in
that wide area.
Glenn stated that Ameren was very blunt about the transmission
equipment outside of Latham being "antiquated." In this discussion,
the members asked about black outs, and Ameren explained that, when
power outages happen, they usually try to prioritize places like
hospitals first, followed by communities with more people.
They asked several other questions that the Ameren representatives
could not answer at the time but shared that they were going to get
answers soon and post those online for people to view.
The final item on the agenda was listed as “Logan County Employee
Performance Review.” Nelson stated that, to discuss this matter,
they would have to go into executive session. Fitzpatrick asked if
they could skip to public comments first. The meeting had already
gone on for over an hour and a half at this point. Fitzpatrick
indicated that she did not want to have people waiting longer to
make their comments, as there was a sizable crowd there to speak on
the topic of the proposed data center.
Glenn entertained this idea and
opened the floor to comments. The first woman wanted to know about
how the information from Ameren would be disseminated to the people
of the county. Glenn stated that he wanted to do it in the best way
possible, suggesting possibly posting the information online and
printing hard copies that would be available at the courthouse.
The next woman wanted to know if
the county knew about the bill that is being tossed around in the
Illinois Congress to freeze property taxes on larger projects.
DeRoss spoke on this stating that they were aware, and that it was
less a freeze and more of a “payment in lieu of taxes” situation. He
continued that, should the bill be passed in its current form the
county would have more say as to where tax money would be able to be
distributed. He included that the bill is still very early in the
process and not worry too much at the moment.
There were several comments covering how many jobs would be created
compared to what Hut 8 has stated, asking the board members if they
wanted to move close to the data center, and the quality of the
farmland the data center would be built on. There was a comment in
favor of the data center, mentioning potential benefits like
increased tax revenue and what could be done for Mt. Pulaski
schools.
A discussion was had over the proposed location of the data center,
and why it could not be moved further from Latham. Board members
stated that this was due to Latham’s proximity to a large
substation. It was speculated that, should Logan County vote this
data center down, they may just move next door to Macon County and
still build right next to Latham. In this case, Logan County would
not have any say.
Nelson also remembered and reminded everyone in the room that, in
2022, the county had voted in favor of building four much smaller
data centers. One, which is only starting the process of being
built, is going to be near Adams Early Childhood Center in Lincoln.
Another question was asked about why the citizens in the county
could not vote on the issue of the proposed data center. DeRoss
shared that putting the item on the ballot requires a petition
signed by a certain number of county residents. Logan County Clerk
and Recorder Theresa Moore was present at the meeting and shared
that the earliest it would be able to be placed on a ballot would be
for November. She offered to provide more information on what would
be needed to get a petition going.
When all the public comments were finished, Glenn thanked everyone
for coming. The board then voted to go into Executive Session to
discuss the final item on the agenda.
[Matt Boutcher]
|
